Dignity in Samaria - John 4:1-42
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Asbury Outpouring
“God has set eternity in the human heart…”
David Foster Wallace - “There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”
Worship - “aligning our passion, vision, values, attention, energy, and capacities towards that which matters most.”
Darrell Johnson - “Dogs bark, fish swim, horses gallop, birds fly, and humans worship; that is why we are the creature always seeking; always seeking something bigger than ourselves.”
David Foster Wallace - “If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you…(these things) will eat you alive.”
John 4:13 - 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus offers to quench your eternal thirst with himself.
John 4:4 - 4 Now he had to go through Samaria…
Samaria
John 4:5-7 - 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
John 4:9 - 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”
Mishnah Avot (5.65) - “He that talks much with womankind brings evil upon himself and neglects the study of the Law and at the last will inherit Gehenna.”
John 4:10-20 - …“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jeremiah 2:13 -
“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Ezekiel 36:25 - 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities…
John 4:19-26 - 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am...”
I AM
John 4:28-30, 40-42 - 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him…39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
For his name’s sake.
Psalm 25:11 - 11 For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Psalm 23:1-3 - 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
1 Samuel 12:22 - 22 For the Lord will not cast away his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.
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Each Sunday we come together we offer an open invitation into the way of Jesus. An invitation to enter into sacred rhythms - to draw near to God through singing, giving, learning, and praying.
As a community that desires renewal in Des Moines as it is in Heaven, we recognize that we cannot offer what we ourselves do not have. We cannot lead where we ourselves have not been led; in turn, these questions aim at reflection. Reflecting on God’s word and making space for his leadership.
After watching or listening consider the following discussion questions as a large group or in groups of three to four:
What stood out from the teaching?
What does God’s choice to dwell among his people in the Exodus account tell us about God’s character?
How do we see God’s character on display (embodied) Jesus in John 2?
What changes because Jesus is the new temple (the new meeting place of heaven and earth)?
If we individually - as Jesus’ followers - and corporately - as Jesus’ church - are now the dwelling place of God, what does that mean for our relationships, homes, and industries? And what stands in the way?